The Peugeot 5008, produced at the factory PSA the Janais, located in Chartres-de-Bretagne near Rennes, is a nice commercial success. But while production of the C5 Aircross began in March 2018 on the same site, the plant could quickly reach the maximum of its production capacity – around 100,000 vehicles. PSA is therefore thinking of allocating part of the SUV’s manufacture to another site, in order to prevent delivery times from getting longer.
A transfer to Sochaux, hypothesis number 1
The car group confirms having launched a study on the subject, but logically, the factory PSA Sochaux in Montbéliard is best placed to recover some of the production of the 5008. The site already hosts models of the same segment, as the DS5 or the Grandland crossover ofOpel, but also the little brother of the 5008, the 3008. A decision should be made quickly, for a transfer of production in March 2019.
This is not bad news for the Rennes site, reassures its director Thérèse Joder in a statement. “The announcement of higher than expected volumes using full production capacity is great news for the sustainability of the site,” she says. “The combined production of the Peugeot 5008 and the future Citroën C5 Aircross confirms the positive momentum in which the site has registered, the result of the modernization plan of more than 100 million euros “.
PSA surfs on the wave of SUV
The PSA plant in the Janais has 3,200 employees, including a thousand temporary workers, while 5,000 people work on the Sochaux-Montbéliard site. PSA indicates that it is too early to say whether hiring will be necessary to cope with the surplus activity on the Sochaux site, or if models currently manufactured in the Doubs will have to be transferred elsewhere. The largest French factory PSA is already running at full speed. And the group had already announced in autumn 2017 that the Sochaux and Mulhouse sites would be allocated new vehicles by 2020-2021.